MERIDIAN (AP) — Lisa Neal is the owner of Airbrush Unlimited, a kiosk in Bonita Lakes Mall that sells airbrushed T-shirts, license plates, and hats. Neal usually is busy on weekends, but now fears that Airbrush Unlimited could go out of business soon.

That’s because most her weekend customers are teens, and she fears the mall’s new Youth Escort Policy will take away some of her best shoppers.

The new policy goes into effect Friday and bans people younger than 18 from visiting the most parts of the mall after 6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays without a parent or guardian. Young people still can go unescorted to the movie theater and the anchor stores.

“I think it’s going to be a disaster myself,” Neal said. “That’s half or better of the market that I have on Friday and Saturday nights.”

Much of her business, she said, comes from the same teens every weekend.

“I don’t know how they afford it,” she said, “but they come in and buy a new shirt every week, and they don’t have parents with them.”

Some other businesses that cater to teens are wondering if their sales might suffer, too.

“It might help,” said Leann Coppins, an assistant manager at Claire’s accessory store, “but it might not help because the majority of our business does come from children.”

Shanda Harrison, a manager at the Icing, Claire’s sister accessory store, agreed the policy is likely to damage profits at Claire’s. But at the Icing, which caters to slightly older clientele, Harrison said the policy is a good thing.

“I may eat my words later,” she said, “but my honest opinion is that this is not going to do much damage to our business.”

Teens, she said, hang out at the Icing, but don’t usually buy anything.

“I think in the long run it may hurt us, with school starting, but during the summer it doesn’t help us when they’re in the mall. This is more of a baby-sitting place for them.”

Store managers said mall administrators did not ask for their input before setting the new policy, instead informing them of it several hours before it was announced during a news conference July 11.

Courtney Hall, the mall’s marketing manager, said stores were consulted mostly on a corporate level. She said a few stores were consulted locally, but would not say which ones.

Hall said mall managers did not want proposals leaked to the public before a policy was set.

“As far as comments from the stores, they were very positive,” Hall said.

She said response on the new policy from the public has been “mostly positive.”

Managers at other mall businesses that cater to teens, including Hollister and Co., Aeropostale, and Game Stop, said their parent companies would not allow them to comment on the new policy.

Meridian Police Chief Benny DuBose said the policy was set because some teens would gather at the mall in groups and “intimidate” customers.

The mall said in a press release that “60 percent of the arrests and bans that have occurred in recent months are the result of crimes committed by unsupervised youth and young adults.” Hall said the mall would not release the number of incidents.

Neal, who can view the entire food court from her kiosk, said most of the problems are caused by people who appear to be in their early 20s. Neal said she has seen many people of that age coming to the mall intoxicated, picking fights, shoplifting, and selling drugs, but that she had rarely witnessed the same behavior in kids under 18.

“Never have I seen a fight with teenagers,” she said.

Hall did not provide the mall’s definition of “parent or guardian,” but said, “we aren’t going to make you present guardianship papers,” adding that aunts, uncles, and older siblings over 21 would be considered guardians.

“It is absolutely not that we don’t want teenagers at the mall, because we do,” Hall said. “They make our mall thrive. We’re only asking that they be escorted six out of the 72 hours that the mall is open.”